Google Base/Shopping

Google Merchant Center Upload Issues

Users who submit their products to Google’s Merchant Center via FTP have been recently getting this error:

Google Merchant Center problem with data feed file: “xxxxx.txt”

Dear Google Merchant Center user,

On March 3, 2010 5:10:17 AM PST you uploaded to Google Merchant Center via FTP a file named “xxxxxx.txt”, but you don’t have a data feed registered with this name. Please verify that you provided the correct file name, including correct capitalization.

It’s currently a known issue that Google is working on, and should hopefully be resolved quickly. Here is Google’s response on the issue:

We’ve noticed that a few users who have uploaded their data feeds via FTP are getting the data feed file name error. This is a known issue and our engineers are working to resolve it. In the meantime, if your data feed file size is less than 20 MB, please upload your data feeds manually. We appreciate your patience.

No word yet on a timeline on when this will be resolved, but hopefully it will be soon.

Edit: It appears the issue has been resolved, we can all go back to feeding as normal now.

Google eCommerce Marketing Tools Cheat Sheet

We often get questions from merchants about the many services offered by Google to drive traffic and sales to their eCommerce websites. Due to the multitude of offerings and similar names making sense of Google’s major marketing channels can be a challenge to the casual observer. Below you’ll find CPC Strategy’s breakdown of Google’s product marketing tools as well as links to the Google page were you can find out more information about the service.

Google Adwords
Google Adwords is Google’s PPC program that allows merchants to create keyword and site-targeted advertising campaigns on both search result pages and websites participating in Google’s Adsense program. Advertisers are charged on a per click basis (usually), and are in control of where and how often their ad is displayed using Google’s bidding interface.

Google Adwords
http://adwords.google.com/

Google Product Search/Base
Google Product Search, formerly known as Google Shopping or Froogle allows merchants to post products online to a product database. Merchants submit data feeds to Google, which Google ranks, scores, and skus up against other sellers based on item relevance. These listings appear both in Google’s Shopping Portal and on search result pages (Onebox). At the time of writing Google Product Search is open to all advertisers and there is no cost associated with submitting data feeds and receiving traffic from this service.

Google Merchant Center
http://www.google.com/merchants

Google Product Extensions
Google Product Extensions is a new feature which marries Google Adwords campaigns with Google Product Search listings. Google Product Extensions supplement a merchant’s regular Adwords search-campaign with titles, images, and prices from a merchant’s Google Product Search inventory.  These inventory enhanced ads are displayed in the same right rail area of the search result page as text ads. Even though Google charges the same amount for clicks on Product Extension ads as they would for normal text ads we’ve seen an increase in click through rates for ads when the feature is enabled. This program is available to all US merchants who advertise on Adwords and send inventory files to Google Product Search.

More information about Google Product Extensions
Google Product Extensions Post

Google Product Listing Ads
Google Product Listing Ads are the newest addition to Google’s advertising suite and while they look similar to the ads surfaced through Google Product Extensions Google Product Listing Ads differ in two main ways. First, Google algorithmically chooses where, when, and how often these ads show up and second, the merchant does not pay for the click itself and instead pays only when a transaction is completed on the merchant page. Google Product Listing Ads are current in closed beta, but CPC Strategy will happily provide listing assistance once the product opens up to all advertisers.

More Information about Product Listing Ads
Google Product Listings Ads Post

Google Base Search Page Going into Retirement, Few Will Notice

We speculated a few weeks ago that Google launching its new Merchant Center meant a finale to its rarely used Google Base.

Today then Google has issued this statement:

Google Base has its own search page for users to search across everything that’s been uploaded, but it isn’t widely used. Instead, people search on Google Product Search for products, or on Google Maps to find houses for rent or sale. Therefore, we’re planning to retire Google Base’s separate search page in a few weeks.

They go on to state that since very few people used the Base search page to find products that merchants will not notice much of a difference in terms of traffic driven to their site.

In our experiences this is certainly the case–given that Google’s one-box features links to its Product Search page, and the Base link isn’t even listed in their search results page.

Sample Data Feeds and Feed Specifications for Comparison Shopping Engines

Below you’ll find both sample data feeds and links to data feed specifications for the major shopping engines (As of 10/3/2009). It’s highly recommended that you read over the latest specification at the engine resource site before deploying the feeds for your campaigns.
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Google Base/Google Product Search
- Sample Data Feed for Google Base/Google Product Search
- Google Base/Google Product Search Data Feed Specifications Page

Shopzilla
- Sample Data Feed for Shopzilla
- Shopzilla Data feed Specifications Page

Pricegrabber
- Sample Data Feed for Pricegrabber
- Pricegrabber Data feed Specifications Page

Nextag
- Sample Data Feed for Nextag
- Nextag Data feed Specifications Page

Shopping.com
- Sample Data File for Shopping.com – Varies By Category, see Specification Page
- Shopping.com Data Feed Specifications Page

Bing Cashback
- Sample Data Feed for Bing Cashback
- Bing Cashback Data Feed Spcifications Page

Yahoo Shopping
- Sample Data Feed for Yahoo Shopping
- Yahoo Shopping Data Feed Specification Page (Must be a Yahoo Shopping Merchant to View)

Become
- Sample Data Feed for Become.com
- Become Data feed Specifications Page

Smarter.com
- Sample Data Feed for Smarter
- Smarter Data feed Specifications Page

Pronto
- Sample Data Feed for Pronto
- Pronto Data Feed Specifications Page

Amazon Product Ads
- Sample Data Feed for Amazon Product Ads
- Amazon Product Ads Data Feed Specifications Page (Need to have an Amazon Product Ads account to View)

Google Slowly Rolling Out its new “Google Merchant Center”

Google Base was launched several years ago as an online classifieds database (similar to Craigslist), but never really caught on as such.

However online merchants using the Base interface found much success as it would be integrated into what was then called Froogle, then Google Shopping, and now Google Product Search, particularly when their products got “one-boxed” into the front page of Google.

Now it looks like Google is slowly phasing away from their Base platform (currently the only way to get products listed on Google Products) and into what they’re calling the “Google Merchant Center”.

We wanted to let you know that your Google Base account will be upgraded to a new interface called “Google Merchant Center” in the next few days. We won’t announce this publicly until it actually launches, but we wanted to make sure you were aware in the meantime so it didn’t take you by surprise.

Over the last few years, we’ve noticed that the majority of providers use Google Base to upload their product data for Google Product Search. To better serve those of you who upload products, we’ve decided to create the new Google Merchant Center. This means you’ll be able to go to the Merchant Center to upload product feeds, check on your accounts, and get information about your product listings. Google Base will no longer handle product uploads.

To make things easier, we’ll be migrating all of your information, including your feed schedule and FTP information, from Google Base to the new Google Merchant Center. Once it becomes available, you’ll be able to sign in to the Google Merchant Center with your existing Google
Base login information. The new Merchant Center is very similar to the current Google Base interface, so we hope that you’ll find it easy to use.

As always, thank you for participating in Google Product Search.

It doesn’t look like much will change at all, and merchants won’t even have to do anything if they’re currently automatically sending their feeds out on a daily basis, but it’s certainly symbolic that Google is taking their own comparison shopping engine very seriously as it has gained much traction since it first launched.

We’ve also gotten emails from account managers at Google recently who are available to help with a handful our merchants’ accounts–who previously were unavailable. Prior to this, the only way to get any sort of live help would be through their generic e-mail system, and via the Google Base forums.

It’s yet to be seen what sort of threshold will be required of merchants on Google to receive an account manager and/or a merchant center.

Google Product Search Now Lists Product Conditions

It’s been just over a month since Google started requiring a condition field within data feeds, and it looks like they’re starting to roll out this feature to certain users, as is the norm.

Consumers can now filter out just new products within their results, which can be very useful for those who consider price to be most important, as refurbished/used items will often be the lowest priced.

All in all we expect this to be good for vendors regardless if they sell new or used items, or both.

Those who sell new items will gain exposure by not having their products mixed into results of vendors selling the same items but which are refurbished.

And while those who sell refurbished items may get less traffic, consumers who use the filter probably weren’t interested in purchasing refurbished items anyway.

Most importantly though, this will increase the consumer experience of those who use Google Product Search, which should help increase user adoption rate, which ultimately will lead to more traffic and sales.

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CPC Strategy was founded by former employees of the comparison shopping engines and understands first hand what it takes to manage a successful comparison shopping campaign. Contact us to find out how we can make the shopping engines work for you.

Google Base to Require “Condition” Attribute in Feed

Not long after requiring merchants to accept their new terms of service, Google Base is now requiring merchants to specify the “condition” field by June 30, or again risk having their products be taken down.

The options for this field are “new”, “used”, and “refurbished”.

This should allow users to more easily find exactly what they’re looking for, particularly if they’re in the market for used/refurbished items. There are a good number of merchants listed on Google Base that sell refurbished merchandise such as electronics, and this should help them be found as well.

Right now a search for say refurbished ipod or refurbished LCD TV on Google Product Search, a majority of the top results don’t have anything to do with refurbished products at all, so hopefully this can be improved as well.

In other news, the astute Google Product Search user will notice that Google has updated their logo, as seen above.

Google Base Terms of Service Updated

Google Base has updated their terms of service, and any merchant listed on there (and there’s no reason one shouldn’t be) will have 30 days to log into their account and accept the new terms or risk having their products being removed.

The process is as simple as logging into the Google Base dashboard, which will take you to the new terms, and checking off that you indeed accept them.

This is generally not an issue for anyone doing manual uploads via Google’s site, since Google requires feeds to be updated every 30 days before they’re taken down–but for merchants who automatically upload their products via FTP or another method, it could potentially be an issue to be aware of.

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CPC Strategy was founded by former employees of the comparison shopping engines and understands first hand what it takes to manage a successful comparison shopping campaign. Contact us to find out how we can make the shopping engines work for you.

Google Product Search now lists Adwords, Allows Barcode Scanning

For astute, regular users of Google Product Search, one may have noticed that Adwords have begun to be displayed along the free product listings:

In theory, adwords listings within Google Product Search results should help improve conversion rates since the traffic should be much more qualified. Generally users will receive such results within normal Google search results or hidden away as advertisements on other sites–by being displayed alongside actual products that people are searching for, a consumer is automatically seeing something that is relevant to them.

For more information on how to get this done, be sure to check out Google’s help document”.

Source: Search Engine Roundtable.

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Google has also released a special feature for their own “Google phone”. Users of Android handsets now have the ability to scan barcodes which directs them to a Product Search results page, allowing them to compare the in-store price with that of various vendors online.

This would be a great way for a consumer to go into a store, check out the product in the flesh, and decide whether he can save by buying online–or if it’s worth the premium to purchase it right away.

The Google Base Doomsday Bug